Meals and eating out can be rough to judge though, especially when eating at restaurants. I have to be really careful because you have to eat on your regular schedule, and finding one can be a challenge down in St.Johns that isn't fast food. When ordering, you have to try to choose something healthy and with the least amount of carbs. I don't have a pump so I don't have to worry about it as much as someone who is, but I try to keep my carbs at mealtime between 50 and 70 depending on my activity. Salads are usually my first choice with a vinegrette, NOT a cream dressing. Cream dressings are loaded with hidden carbs and fat content. I never get an appetizer though because I find it makes my sugar levels skyrocket whether I get a salad vs pasta. I also never get juice or pop, always water or milk. If there no decent salads to order as my main course, I usually go for a sandwich on whole wheat with light mayonnaise. Most common restaurants serve sandwiches and wraps with french fries which are also empty carbs that are hard to burn off. Always ask for side order options though! A lot of the time you can get a baked potatoe which is better than fries, a salad, chili, soup, or if you really want fries, most places serve sweet potatoe fries, although they usually cost about a dollar extra and in my opinion it tastes better than regular fries. I try to hold off on dessert as its usually something made of chocolate and loaded with sugar, unless its a buffet and i can get small portions, or even just fruit. I find buffets to be the worst though because you feel like you want to get what you paid for, so you tend to over eat.
Low blood sugar isn't hard to experience while on vacation either. Here in Newfoundland, Im lucky that I have so much family here and we own our own workshop to store vehicles for when we come down every year. Regardless of our access to vehicles though, walking around visiting tourist sites, or even visiting family for an hour or two can really bring down my sugars quickly. I went downtown St.Johns one day with my cousin and his friend and noticed that walking everywhere and going in and out of stores really made my sugar low and I'd have to stop for something quick. Visiting family was brutal for my sugars when I was visiting younger cousins because i would be running around and chasing them, playing games, and the next thing I knew I was shaky and sweaty. Here i was thinking it was just from running around, but sure enough I checked my sugar and it was 2.7 so you really have to be careful.
Yesterday my mom, my aunt, my cousin and myself decided to go to a french island that belongs to France thats 25km from the south west coast of Newfoundland. We went over by boat which was a two hour long ride, and thank goodness we brought snacks because I could tell after two hours that my sugar was low, so I had an apple. St.Pierre is definitely not a place designed for people with type one diabetes, however. Walking is the main source of transportation, which is good exercise but can really mess up blood sugar levels when you walk for too long as they can drop quick. This happened to me once while I was there during my one night stay, but there were no places with quick sugar, or fast food places (chuck wagons) that took Canadian, so we had to walk all the way back to the hotel where I could eat ravioli from a can to tie me over. It wasn't the best but it got me through. A few hours later we decided to stop for a later lunch/early dinner. The restaurants were nice, but the food selection was terrible and only had menus with lunch food on it that consisted of about 6 things. Anyways, I ordered chicken caesar salad, took my sugar, and 5 units of insulin as i am on the sliding scale. When my food came out. I knew right off the bat that I shouldn't have taken any insulin as the portion size looked like it was for a toddler. So I ate my meal and we continued our day, but of course an hour later my sugar was low again so we went back to the hotel for a snack and freshened up. I had a snack, went out for dinner a bit later and everything seemed fine. I went back to the hotel and felt high sugar symptoms. I checked it and it was 15! My assumption is that my bread at dinner wasn't whole wheat as they don't have much selection or even food for that matter, and my pop was not diet. The language barrier could have effected this too, though. St.Pierre was not what I thought it would be and it wasn't all that nice of a place, but I enjoyed the boat ride too and from the island anyways, apart from low sugar episodes. My biggest concern while in St.Pierre was "what if something weird were to happen with my insulin and i needed medical attention?". It never had a very large hospital, although one was being built, but i only knew that from other people. I did not know where the hospital was located, if they had an emergency unit like an ambulance or how to even get ahold of them as there were no phone numbers, amd they were weird numbers anyways. Three sets of two numbers was considered a phone number. I also never seen a pharmacy! It made me wonder how these people got their prescriptions. A boat is sent from france to Nova Scotia, and from Nova Scotia to StPierre once a week with supplies but what about those who need something as soon as possible? It made me wonder if there was anyone on the island who was a T1D and how they lived with it. The whole island definitely doesn't cater to people with type 1, so it really made me wonder how they do it! Over all, it was a neat experience!
Jenn :)
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